Nearly six in ten Americans now believe that marijuana use ought to be legal and only about one in three favor continuing to criminalize the plant, according to nationwide survey data published today by the Pew Research Center.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents say “The use of marijuana should be made legal,” the highest percentage of Americans ever to answer the question affirmatively in a Pew poll. Only 37 percent of respondents disagree with legalization.

The percentages mark a dramatic shift in public opinion over the past decade. In 2006, only 32 percent of Pew survey respondents favored legalization, while 60 percent opposed the idea. Much of this change is a result of shifting opinions among Millennials (those ages 18 to 35). While only 34 percent of Millennials favored legalizing marijuana in 2006, nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of younger Americans support this policy change today.

Democrats (66 percent), Independents (63 percent), and men (60 percent) were also among those most likely to endorse legalization. Support was lowest among those respondents over 71 years of age (33 percent) and Republicans (41 percent).

What is it with Republicans being against damn near everything? Don’t change anything, leave it like it was! All comes from trying to defend the nonsense in the bible, rather than accepting that it was just stories written by people who didn’t know where the sun went at night. All kinds of gods were made up, but then we started learning how the world really works. But I digress….
We obviously need to get out and vote for more progressive govt officials, which tends to mean younger and non-Republican.

Justin,
What I mean to say is that Republican lawmakers have by vast majority failed to represent theyre voting constituents on marijuana reform. Worse, they have trampled on states rights in DC and even overturned bipartisan legislation to provide veterans access to life-saving marijuana pain management alternatives to opiates. Self-identified Republican voters are more in favor of legalization than their representatives. And youre right, more than %40 is a significant number. But marijuana legalization is flushing out all the prohibitionists and the lion’s share are Republican lawmakers. And believe me, I’ll call them out as Democrats like Debbie Washmoney Shultz should or when Hillary takes money from Big Pharma, but at least Sanders has her moving to the left. And when we win back the Senate for Democrats, that places Sanders behind the gavel of the Senate Finance Committee reducing the obstacles for cannabanking. Let’s face it, between Sanders and Trump Hillary is the new conservative, and at least with a female majority in support of marijuana reform she won’t stand in our way.

We’re winning. But that’s a relative statement. It’s relative to rock-bottom — that point at which we were fully defeated, when “they” (the prohibitionist forces) had total command of American policy and political opinion.

What’s critical now is not to lose the ground we’ve gained. Big wins this November could make that more certain.

It wasn’t that long ago, we (and I use the word “we” loosely — I was mostly a spectator) would get romped on every initiative, every time. It was like a kick in the stomach to have it affirmed yet once again: “We’re not paranoid — they really are out to get us!”

And we’re not out of the woods yet.

In the 90’s, I stood on a street corner in Indianapolis, holding a sign. It was my first protest, and it there were only six or seven of us! We were protesting the arrest and prosecution of an ailing, bed-bound individual who was being prosecuted for a gram or two — about an eighth! The cops were in the apartment building on “another call” when they “smelled marijuana” and broke in the apartment, arrested the sick individual.

Yes, it was outrageous, that’s why we were there. But it was a different time and place — even supportive people passing by would say things like “I agree with you, but it will NEVER change.” And many people were not supportive. It took deliberate patience to tolerate the disgusted reactions we got from time to time.

I haven’t forgotten where we’ve come from. I, too, thought I would never see the day when I when I could walk into a dispensary, right in my own neighborhood! So I’m not skeptical of the change. I’m living the dream, now!

But this is not the time to relax. This is the time to drive it home — it’s time to slam those prohibitionist fucks to the ground so hard they don’t get up again (politically speaking, that is! Non-violence is where it’s at!)

I may have misspoken: things in Indiana may not have changed as much as you might think! That’s where Pence is from (ew!)

This by Phillip Smith, of stopthedrugwar.org, Sept 30 2016:

Indianapolis Narcs on Mad Arrest Binge. A newly formed Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department drug unit has arrested more than 1,000 people in the past two and half months. Local media is calling it a “success” and IMPD Chief Troy Riggs vowed that more of the same was coming. “We’re not backing off,” he said. “This is the new normal.”

This is a voter initiated line up for prohibitionists, and the only two people left under the bright lights is some really old cantankerous person who cant change their mind or shake reefer madness, and perhaps most devistatingly, Republicans. Notice “Moderate to Liberal Republicans” are up there with independents at %63. But “conservative” Republicans are down to %33. What do Insys, Sherrif’s Associations, money-laundering casinos and real estate moguls all have in common? They donate Republican.
Perhaps the final sword in this bull is that women, who thanks to the derranged orangutang (no offense to orangutangs…) will be voting heavily Democratic, are at %55 in these polls. Thats Hillary’s base. But the bigger story is that every Republican Congressman who failed to reject Drumph when he started publically offending women (at birth) is losing women’s vote so Hillary will likely have a Democratic Senate and a more Democratic House. This helps pending marijuana legislation. Lets see if Congress can stand up to Big opiates in the VA next year or international investment banks so we can start Cannabanking.
If there ever was a climax to our Great American Cannabis Tragedy it would be November 8th. November 9th we should all take a weeks vacation around the US! Meanwhile until elections lets keep contacting our state legislators; weve really got them running for their money now! Even the DEA postponed their scheduling of Kratom until after elections!

Good for you, Julian. Your postings always show a consideration, well worth the read.

All the more ironic to find myself so concerned for the future of the GOP, conservatism, and the values conservatives once stubbornly Trumped as their own for decades. I still think the values of family, hard work and home rule provide a pretty good flashlight

Thanks. The definition of “conservative” has been tortured over the last few decades but the GOP really kicked themselves in their “conservatives” this time. I even tried telling my Republican state representative way back during the 2011 drought “Cannabis is conservative because hemp conserves more water than corn or cotton.” Because thats what conservative means, right? Not spending and wasting our resources? But no, my rep still wont support industrial hemp. I won’t complain because he’s outlining an agenda to decriminalize in Texas and possibly expand the Compassionate Use Act. But even that is fishy when the so-called “conservative” Koch brothers want to use the wording in “decriminalization” policies to cover up a campaign against “overcriminalization” which really means shut down the government’s ability to prosecute white collar crimes.
While libertarians are allies to marijuana reform in many respects, and I know we need all the donations we can get, look at the long term cost from hidden “conservative” agendas; Is it really “conservative” when the real agenda for Koch Industries is to maximize tax cuts and federal subsidies in the farm bill then sneak in legislation that blocks using hemp for fuel and energy so they won’t compete with their more expensive, toxic, finite petroleum patents?
Is it “conservative” when everyone, Dems and Repubs, accept donations from the opiate-industrial-complex through conglamerates like Northrup Grumman and Big Pharma that spend billions of our tax dollars on defense contracting for the drug war and tax-free corporate welfare so they can shove pills of opiates down our throats?
…to be continued…

This line of thought over what is truly “conservative” has been exposed by marijuana legalization. Years ago I wrote about this when DC was trying to legalize and “conservative” lawmakers in Congress passed a rider to cut funding on the DC initiative. The Republican party, the “conservative” party of “states rights” blocking states rights after %70 of the citizens of DC voted to legalize?
And so the prophecy is fullfilled; A self-interested con artist pretending to be conservative has stamped his name on the Republican party and is running against a Democratic woman who is arguably more reliably “conservative” than he is.
And when we look at what Sanders put into the Democratic platform regarding marijuana policy we see regulation for a plant that solves the one major problem with health care that Obama and all the Democrats couldn’t fix before now;

I believe you hit the nail on the head. For years nobody could say anything bad about Bill Clinton without getting a fight from me. However, I didn’t have the internet during his years as president, and didn’t completely understand that he was in actuality a very “conservative” Democrat.

I believe he himself coined the term “Third-Way Democrat,” meaning he was socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. Or, in other words, a Corporate Democrat, which is not so very different from most Republican politicos.

Which is why is find the utter hatred of him by Repubs and conservatives somewhat surprising. In fact, I suspect that had he or Hillary had an “R” in front of their names instead of a “D” that he and she would be fairly loved by many GOPers and Cons, at least the fiscally conservative of them.

I suspect the Social Cons would’ve still hated them, however, those people who would love to see our country return to the “halcyon” days of Mayberry ca. 1955, replete (tho not admitted in mixed company) with segregation, heavy religion and, yes, marijuana prohibition. Of course, history rarely works that way, the “good old days” usually replaced by the exorable advance of civilization.

Given the above, I believe that Bernie Sanders did our country a huge service by running against her and pushing (forcing) her to the left.

I would go so far as to say that anyone who has tried it or done their homework on the subject will conclude that it should be legal. There is zero doubt that locking people up and ruining their lives, and the lives of their families, is a tragic consequence of the prohibition of a relatively safe substance/plant.

It is incredibly stupid to think that incarceration is preferable to letting someone enjoy a bit of the herb and yet that is the conclusion of a select group of idiots that happen to be in power here in America.

I am 60 years old and I vote. I will always choose a pro-legalization candidate over one that chooses to live by the archaic prohibitionist mindset.

Thank you for doing your homework Miles. I suppose I should add that Im not as angry as my previous post may have implied concerning our discerning advocacy of “smoking” marijuana, so much as I wish to add context to our rights to consume and utilize cannabis how we see fit, so long as we aren’t “blowing smoke” into each other’s faces.
With that said, now that Trump voters are about to show the world how many Americans ate their homework, the need to educate and elevate our vocabulary concerning legalization has risen to a whole new standard. Project SAM and conservative legislators are pushing for decriminalization, not legalization. Of course, anything is better than prohibition. But… we are on the verge of states legalizing “6 plants per household” and Arizona, despite every attempt to stop it, is going to get revenue for public education. And boy do we need it! Not only do we need to bring back civics to the core curiculum so we can teach Trump voters what the three branches of government are, but at our level of understanding we need to know the difference between marijuana and criminal justice reform and this crap the Koch brothers call “overcriminalization.”

As we legalize state to state, the inability to patent whole plant cannabis and the freeing up of law enforcement to focus on violent crime may be compensated by ignoring “white collar” corporate crime. Looks like our “homework” is gearing up for a final exam…

Virginia is the last state that will embrace benefits of cannabis. The seat of the pharmaceutical industry lies within its boundaries. After the F.D.A. approves a drug for market most of the costs associated with a drug are in marketing and advertising.

These people don’t care about you. They care about the money you pay for treatments that don’t cure and often chronic ailments degenerate and require more treatment, more money. As long as you keep paying, they have more money to trickle down the judicial pyramid to enforce the illegality of a natural herb than cures mosts ailments.

Where would the insurance companies be to get a chunk of their share if we could cure ourselves of most maladies without more pills just because they don’t care the least bit about anyone’s welfare but the lining of their greedy pockets?

Law enforcement officials put a gun to your head because the entire system is funded by the trickle-down greed from just a few that could not care less about helping anyone but themselves.

@craig, it is not about the Bible has nothing to do with the Bible. The republicans that I have been in contact with reps. and senators in my area are self interest individuals as most politicians are but this has nothing with the Christian bible. I am a strong believer in Jesus Christ and I believe he died on the cross for our sins, he rose on the third day. And all you/we have to do to be saved is follow Romans 10:9-10. Now, back to marijuana, its all about $’S Craig, big Pharma, alcohol and tobacco industry are fighting 24-7 to keep marijuana illegal. Do you know who holds the patent on marijuana in the United States? The United States govt.! South America are big $ donors to you elected officials to keep marijuana illegal, its all about the $ dollar. I hope and pray it is legalized in all states in the U.S.A. I need it for its medicinal property.

I am amazed that so many still hold to the belief that if someone is pro weed that they must be liberal or democrat or fit in whatever box you want to put them in. You don’t have to believe the same things that i do, but why do you feel the need to slam my beliefs? Read the article…there are lot of people who are for legalization that don’t vote like you do. Celebrate that we aren’t all the same but can agree on something without tearing each other down…or at least go smoke a joint?

As a progressive liberal myself, I want to applaud what you said as reasonable and civilized. I’ll take you up on that cyberjoint hit (Thanks! Hey that’s some good shit!)

But may I say, when it comes to politicians and marijuana, there’s no denying the fact that it is the Republicans who are the bigger obstacle to legalization than the Democrats.

Now, of course, that doesn’t give all Democrats a free pass (Some are horrible, like Senator Feinstein); Nor does it tar all Republicans with the same brush (You guys have some legalizers — like uh, um… hmmm… oh yeah: Rohrabacher!)

My wife and I were recently discussing the possibility of moving away from Virginia since, with the Republicans controlling everything, cannabis may never be legal here during our lifetimes.

I told her I liked the idea of moving back to my hometown, Albuquerque. So, I checked out NORML’s page with the cannabis laws to find out what the laws are in New Mexico. I was stunned to learn that cultivation, any amount, could get you a $10,000 fine and 9 years in prison.

Unbelievable! I thought it would be wonderful to buy a house there and grow a couple of plants but the laws there, at least for now, are outrageous!

I am now thinking that America should be divided into two separate nations; those who believe in personal freedom, and those who want the Govt to control their lives with an iron fist.

When it comes to weed, I think America is split into two nations right now, just as you describe. I’ve lived in weed-friendly Colorado for so long, and become so accustomed to exercising my legal right to use cannabis, that I don’t want to ever set foot outside the state border! Going to some “alcohol-only” state sounds like going to some third-world dictatorship to me now — I might never get out! The hell with that!

Regarding Virginia, there appears to be a budding move towards decriminalization. The government of the city of Norfolk is 100% behind decriminalization and is determined to pressure the state legislatures to make it happen. I’m sure more liberal areas like Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax (Northern VA basically) will be behind this too. But yes. the grip of religious prohibitionists is quite strong in the state legislature.

The biggest move in regards to cannabis after California legalizes will be the 1st state government to legalize via legislature rather than ballot initiative. Some New England states have promised to do that if Massachusetts legalizes.

Sometimes I really hate the idea of religion. It is truly the cause of most of the problems, and even wars, that people have had throughout history. Even today it is something that greatly divides people.

Why is it that those who believe in some kind of God also believe that God gave us bad things, and that the marijuana plant is one of those bad things? The stupidity of these people is mind-boggling. I have inquired of a few devout christians about where, in the bible, does it say that people should not use this plant and not one could come up with anything. It’s funny that one of them did show me a passage regarding the consumption of alcohol but that same person was a drinker! His logic for doing so is that, since he has been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, that he is forgiven for that and anything else he does. It’s just unbelievable!

Miles,
It’s important for us to separate “religion” from “spirituality.” Religion is a spiritual practice where people congregate for common values, hence the silly politics and metaphors. Marijuana can help us cut through the bull$hit while we build religious communities and rituals. I’m Catholic, but I don’t know many Catholics that believe Noah filled an arc up with all the animals two by two. (If that were true he would have left the fire ants. Could you imagine?)
Spirituality is about our relationship to the spirit world. Here, marijuana connects us and balances our spiritual well being by allowing us to create new, positive and energetic perspectives on chronically depressing or traumatic issues.
I don’t go the way of Bill Maher in his attacks on religion, even when I completely agree with his criticism, simply because I believe he treads a thin line from distinguishing spirituality from religion. In my next post I will give you a classic example of how marijuana nurtures our connection to the natural world, increased herbal agrarian biodiversity and variety to our gardens, homeostatic balance, and inspires spirituality and both transcends and created all the world’s major religions.

As for Christianity and marijuana, Jesus spent at least a decade living among the Scythians who traditionally threw bales of marijuana into ceremonial fires. Unfortunately, most of these records were destroyed when the Great Library of Alexandria was burned in 48BC. Weed was not as potent during the biblical era, yet through context we know that Jesus was at very least getting a contact high. More potent Indicas were being brought up the Nile by the Sofi tribes through Ethiopia from the Red Sea by Indian merchants.
One of the three wise men that brought “incense” to baby Jesus was a Zoreastrian neophyte. The middle-eastern prophet Zoreaster was providing marijuana as medicine centuries before Jesus was born.
Some documentation of early Christian and Jewish marijuana use may have been lost in translation. In her book “Early Diffusions and Folk History of Hemp,” anthropologist Sulah Benet revealed the word “calabus” in the Greek Septuagint version of the bible was mistranslated from the original Aramaic version and traces the etymology to the Semitic word “kanneh bosem,” the principle ingredient to the holy anointing oils. Egyptians still infuse fragrant incense with hashish to this day.
One of the founding digressions of Christianity from Judaism was not so much whether people would believe Jesus was born from a virgin, that one gets entirely left to the imagination! One of the real contraversies Jesus stirred up from Jewish synagogues was that he took the holy healing oils reserved for Priests and Kings and used it on the sick the imprisoned and the poor. That’s right; Jesus was a marijuana activist, practicing nonviolent civil disobedience against early prohibition.
“Lord when did we see you sick or in prison and bring you food, medicine or clothes?” And the Lord said “Even what you did for the least of these, my brethren, you did it for me.”
-Mathew 25:44

Thanks for the informative post. Do you see a “trojan horse” in the “anti-overcriminalization” agenda the Kochs are sewing into the Republican decriminalization model? Do we take what we can get in non-voter-initiated states and correct it later? Or do we stand our ground when legislators add pork to the barrel so companies like Insys can get away with paying off doctors to prescribe toxic opiates with less prosecutorial costs than what they make in one quarterly earning?

Good questions with no easy answers, however: I think we need to keep our eye on the ball here, namely, the goal of stopping marijuana arrests.

Yes, we have to go about that ethically. We cannot be willing to achieve our goals at any cost, if we wish to claim a moral imperative for stopping the arrests in the first place.

But perhaps we can separate the issues you mentioned. There’s drugs, and there’s white collar crime, and there’s marijuana policy.

As cannabis legalizers, it makes sense to ally with those who would legalize all drugs. It is consistent and avoids hypocrisy; we urge people to use cannabis over opiates, not to be judgemental, but for reasons of health and safety. We should be AGAINST a ramp up of the War On Drugs regarding opiates. We shouldn’t try to “take out” Big Pharma in order to legalize, any more than we tried to “take out” corporate drug testing when we legalized. We’ll get to that, but… “eye on the ball.”

But ethically, we cannot be complicit with white collar crime either, and we must remember: it’s the Corporations in the first place! They are the one’s buying politicians, they are the one’s buying more War on Drugs.

So yes, let’s reform the justice system, definitely. But let’s not get played for suckers!!

Agreed, as always, the priority is to stop the arrests. I suppose the flip side of that is the Koch-“anti-overcromonalization” can act as a bait and lure when they usurp the word “decriminalization” to pass watered down legislation that pushes arrests around such as CCA and Geo have done backing off of federal prison contracts to push for state-lead private prisons and federal immigration detention centers. So great, less marijuana consumers in jail, but were letting Insys and Koch Industries who deserve to be jailed escape prosecution while they continue mass incarceration of immigrants.
Im even skeptical of the incremental delay tactics of so called “conservative” state reps in non voter initiative states like mine here in Texas. When I speak to my rep through a staffer I try and keep focused on medical marijuana and expanding the Compassionate Use Act. My Republican rep wont even back industrial hemp so imagine my delight when the staffer paused and said “Represenative Isaac says he supports decriminalization of marijuana.”
My recent focus or “eye on the ball” was “We’re not doctors, so lets allow doctors to recommend appropriate dosage. If Governor Abbott wont sign a bill that has “street value” then advise him not to sign anything and let the bill pass.”
In my state we have no choice but to bargain with the devil, but we cannot compromise the fundemental injustice of allowing cops, private prisons and Big Pharma to make decisions for doctors and patients. And blaming Mexicans for the drug war? We’re not creating justice by imprisoning the drug war refugees our US drug policies created.

If I may mix metaphors: Yes, life is always a deal with the devil, but you can’t put the horse before the cart, either!

That’s a way of saying that there will always be a need for compromises in life, because nothing’s perfect. But at the same time, if you lose more than you gain, then you’ve shot yourself in the foot!

I try to use the principle of Harm Reduction to sort all that out. When I do, it seems to me that the answer to the question on whether what we do hurts people overall, or helps people overall.

A personal example is, there are many arguments against marijuana prohibition that one could make which might influence a voter to vote in favor of legalization. But I wouldn’t use a racist argument about Mexican smugglers to influence a racist voter to vote my way. Even if it would work! Some might not be willing to sacrifice that vote: “Just lie, for fuck’s sake, take the racist idiot’s vote, and move on, for the sake of the greater good!” Valid argument. Only “harm reduction” tells me I’m doing more harm than good by promoting racism.

And to follow through, I would say that we should NOT weaken the laws against white collar crime in order to release more prisoners, because broadly-speaking it is white-collar crime that is perpetuating the massive crime called “Marijuana Prohibition.”

So I say, “No. Don’t take the bait.”
Thanks for the thought-provoking discussion.